What camera is best for motorsport photography?
I think that is a daft question, and ‘one that takes pictures’, is often my chipper response.
The more experience I gain, the more I witness how folks relate equipment to quality images – no, sorry – that’s the wrong term; with quality photography.
But then that often makes me think what is quality photography?
Is quality photography the incessant repetition of taking pictures of crisp cars at the same corner with a little motion in the wheels?
Not in my book. Not at all.
In my eye, quality photography is all about searching, experimenting and learning what works and what doesn’t. Quality photography is all about getting that one image that makes people say “Wow! How did you do that?”
Generate a reaction – that’s the aim – either one of acceptance and admiration, or one of nay-saying.
Nay-saying? Yup.
I’ve seen and heard that many times; people conveying negative opinion of experimental or creative images of fast cars to effectively crap on peoples efforts to be different, as if they are non-conformist.
That’s a bizarre attitude towards an activity that is wholly about interpretation, and is so steeped in subjectivity, I find it laughable that people attempt to say there are rules.
There are opinions, yes, but that is all. Neither good equipment nor strong opinions will help you take that bonzer image.
It matters not what camera you are in possession of. The only element of it that matters is you. The person holding it. You are the element who chooses where to stand, tells the camera what to do and when to press that button.
I don’t want images that match everyone elses.
I will admit, better equipment can enhance your boundaries and capability, but it still doesn’t take the image for you.
Learning how to manipulate your kit to the environment around you is all important in your pursuit of proper banging pixels.
And that often makes me chuckle to myself when I observe other image takers out at tracks, especially now that I have been fortunate enough to gain some inside access.
When behind the fence, I’ve always watched what others do, see where they stand and how they approach the subjects. I look for the photographers who are perhaps alone, down low or up high and try to think about how and what they are shooting.
Now I’ve had a few opportunities inside the wire, I still watch what others do, but not to copy them. I do it to stay away.
I don’t want images that match everyone elses.
I want to be different, and so I search high and low, try different angles and stand where others don’t venture. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Spending an hour on Sunday at one usually inaccessible part of the circuit was fun, trying to pan through a recovery van, getting some odd looks from my peers, only to then be asked about the lens I was using.
The comedy was, people didn’t care for my approach, nobody asked me what I was trying to accomplish, jiggling about in the background, but one guy who’d been stood in more or less the same place, was interested enough in my equipment.
Snap! I was obviously being watched too, but not for how I was doing what I was doing.
The Walter Hayes Trophy is a bun-fight of formula fords, arguably some of the best racing of the year, and a golden opportunity to explore your photography in or outside of the fence – I witnessed the majority of photographers still all bunched together, shooting very similar angles.
It’s not wrong, but why would you want your shots to look like all the others? That I don’t understand.
The way that late Autumn sunshine caresses the cars with the the most gorgeous of glows, that not only lights up the liveries, the buildings and grandstands that litter Silverstone; it also lights up your enthusiasm.
I went a bit nuts, high on the spoils of that Autumn light and some awesome racing.
Many times this season I’ve bemoaned Silverstone’s bland weather and scenery…but this weekend it made up for it tenfold.
Not often you get cars four abreast for 20 odd laps down the Wellington Straight, bathed in gold. Haha! A shame none of those attempts made my gallery!
What I did capture hopefully portrays the racing I witnessed in the dynamic fashion I was aiming for.
Be great to hear if you enjoy them.
Thanks again for taking a look and thank you to the HSCC and Silverstone for the accreditation.
..amateurs worry about equipment,
professionals worry about money,
masters worry about light,
I just take pictures…
– Vernon Trent
One of my favourite quotes, top shooting mate
haha Cheers Will..I think I used that quote is a previous blog, always wondered who said it first!